I recently picked up a Sanyo VCR-7200 HiFi beta deck off eBay as one of those 'parts or repair' deals, figuring that a new set of belts and a cleaning would get it going again.

I sourced a belt/idler kit from Studio Sound Electronics and installed it, and that did get it somewhat working... FF and REW now work, and it will play a tape without eating it. So that's good. But there's still one or more issues somewhere that I'm having trouble tracking down, and not being particularly familiar with VCR repair, I'm kinda stumped.

The biggest problem is that reverse search doesn't work. It spits the tape out from the capstan/pinch roller, so I know that's at least working without slipping, but the reel doesn't take up the slack, so it just ends up leaving a pile of tape between the capstan and head drum.

Forward search, OTOH, does work.

The second problem, and I suspect it may be related to the first problem, is that the tape jumps a bit when it's playing... it's either dragging somewhere, or something is slipping a bit. There's also a cyclical squeaking noise, but I can't pinpoint where it's coming from... it may just be a roller or something in the tape cartridge itself.

The tape path has been thoroughly cleaned, and all the rollers and guides look to be in good shape. The head drum doesn't look too bad, but it does show some wear and has a couple small pits from corrosion (though from what I can tell with a magnifying glass, it is just some minor pitting, with nothing actually sticking up above the surface, and is mostly outside the actual tape path anyway). Since I'm not sure how to properly judge the condition of a drum, I would consider it one of the possible suspects.

I also checked out the reel tables without a tape in there (since I can't get to them when a tape is inserted), and the idler does turn the feed reel but doesn't seem to get nearly as strong a grip on that one compared to the take up reel. Then again, I don't know how much torque it's actually supposed to have on it.

So, what should I be looking at most closely here, given the symptoms?

So after several more days of screwing with it, I finally got the sumbitch working properly. I won't bother going into all the details of what I did, but suffice to say that I cleaned everything that could be cleaned, polished everything that could reasonably be polished, lubricated everything that moved, and then cleaned everything again.

I did discover one noteworthy thing in the process, though. The belt kit I received included a new lower idler assembly (whereas there was only a tire for the upper one)... well, that new assembly is a piece of crap. The springs are too weak, and the little metal slider piece has burrs on the edges that cause it to bind up. I ended up having to reuse the old assembly, and just swapped the new wheel onto it.